Chapter 173 - 140: There Must Be a Trap

Chapter 173: Chapter 140: There Must Be a Trap

Zhou Qian was rendered speechless by Huai Yu’s frankness.

If he didn’t remember how tearfully she had cried when he was on the brink of death, he would seriously doubt whether there was any affection between them at all.

Facing his questioning gaze, Huai Yu nodded heavily again. "It really was hard work! Leaving everything else aside, just the wood for the frame... I-I-I had to run so far to drag it all back! I was really exhausted!"

Zhou Qian just looked her up and down. "Stuttering. You’re definitely hiding something."

Huai Yu instantly shut her mouth. Although she had revealed most of her secrets, she still hadn’t decided whether to tell him that she could pass through the Rose Corridor to get to Sanqing Mountain! She could only bite her tongue in grievance.

But Zhou Qian was disabled now. If word got out that she wasn’t even willing to help him build a house, she would feel a bit guilty. After racking her brains for a long time, she finally hemmed and hawed.

"Actually, my treehouse is really nice. The wisteria has grown back now, and the blooming flowers are beautiful. You’d definitely be in a great mood living there.

"It just needs to be secured a bit more, and the tarp needs replacing...

"Also, also, I’ve planted a lot of vegetables. If you live there, you won’t even need to farm. My garden has everything..."

However, the more sincerely she spoke, the firmer Zhou Qian’s resolve became. He shook his head. "Forget it. It’s better if I keep some distance from you."

Setting aside whether the Rose Corridor would even tolerate him, what if it got upset one day and slapped him twice? Who could he reason with then? Most importantly, Huai Yu had far too many secrets. The closer they interacted, the easier it would be to notice them. He knew too many people from all walks of life; over time, that kind of exposure would be bad for both of them.

Zhou Qian thought it over and finally made up his mind. "I’ll just build a house on the edge of the Rose Corridor’s restricted area."

Keeping some distance and staying close to the outer road would allow him to keep an eye on things for Huai Yu from afar. As for building the house... He looked at the nervous girl in front of him and finally couldn’t help but laugh. "With your scrawny arms and legs, what could I really expect you to do? I have plenty of people on my end, so don’t worry about it."

Huai Yu thought back to the miraculous overnight speed at which her own house had been built and instantly cheered up. Her shoulders relaxed, clearly relieved of all pressure. "Then Brother Zhou Qian, you can ask your friends for help, and I’ll prepare tea and meals for everyone!"

As soon as she said this, Zhou Qian instantly regretted his decision. He wondered if he should just live in the treehouse instead. Given how Huai Yu completely dropped her guard around people she trusted, she was bound to lay all her cards on the table sooner or later.

Zhou Qian became thoroughly worried. After she left, he struggled out of bed and painstakingly made his way to the washroom. He took a serious look at his face in the mirror. He wondered why he was already experiencing the heartache of raising a daughter when he wasn’t even that old.

Meanwhile, upon realizing she was about to get a neighbor, and that it would be Zhou Qian no less, Huai Yu felt a joy bubbling up inside her like carbonation in a soda. It surged up bubble by bubble, impossible to stop. Even while squeezed into a crowded bus, she couldn’t help but grin.

Lifting the lid of her basket to peek at the brimful of cowpeas inside, Huai Yu made a decision. After she got home today, she would stimulate the growth of every single vegetable seedling. She figured she would only stimulate them a little bit. Since all plants had mutated anyway, it shouldn’t be a big deal if her homegrown vegetables grew a bit larger. She would just use her Purification Ability sparingly, only purifying them slightly right before eating. That way, she could produce tons of vegetables!

After all, Zhou Qian was so pitiful. He was retired now, and if he had to build a house and save up for some household belongings like she did... he probably wouldn’t have any money left for food. She was now doing the work of one person to feed two, so she absolutely had to sell more vegetables! Case in point: it was only early May, yet she already had more cowpeas at home than she could eat, which was exactly why she had harvested them to bring to Boss Tang.

Just as she was secretly pondering this, she suddenly heard someone next to her exclaim in surprise. "Little girl, where did you get these cowpeas?"

Huai Yu blinked. She instinctively clutched her basket tighter before looking at the middle-aged woman who had spoken. "I... um..."

She didn’t want to explain too clearly, but the woman’s focus wasn’t on that anyway. Instead, her eyes were fixed on the now-covered basket as she asked again, "You’re taking those to the trading market to sell, right? How much are they?"

Huai Yu fell silent. After a moment of thought, she replied, "I haven’t tested the Mutant Value yet. The Mutant Value for these is low, so the price will be quite high."

She had taken the bus many times now, and the older women always chatted either about how to save their points or how to cleverly repurpose idle household items. Nowadays, the price of any food was directly tied to its Mutant Value. By saying this, she figured no one would—

"A low Mutant Value?! How low?!" The woman’s eyes instantly lit up.

Huai Yu had only considered that a low Mutant Value meant a high price, but she hadn’t realized that the truly good goods rarely trickled down to ordinary people who squeezed onto buses to buy their groceries. Furthermore, Labor Day had just passed. Since everyone had expended a lot of energy, it was just like the old tradition of eating a hearty meal to recover after the busy farming season. The closer the vegetables were to normal, the more desperately people craved them.

Now that the woman had shouted, half the passengers in the bus carriage began crowding toward her. Huai Yu hurriedly clamped both hands over the basket’s lid before shouting back. "I haven’t tested them yet! I don’t know the price, and it hasn’t been set! I’m not selling these, I’m bringing them to someone else..."

If it had been ordinary goods, the woman would have given up right then and there. But those cowpeas she had glimpsed earlier were so green, so tender and crisp, and so incredibly fresh... It was only early May! Even with Wood Ability Users growing vegetables, aside from a few fast-growing greens, nothing else ripened this quickly!

Therefore, the woman persistently squeezed the wrinkles on her face into a deeply amiable smile, maximizing her friendliness. "That’s fine! Are you going to get them tested at the trading market? I happen to be heading there to buy things anyway. Once you test them and figure out how much you’re selling them for, just let me know. I’ll buy them!"

As soon as she said this, Huai Yu could feel a barrage of gazes from the surrounding passengers conveying the exact same intention. She was dumbfounded. She noted that everyone’s reaction was completely different from how they had acted two months ago.

Little did she know, back when Flower City had first lifted its restrictions, everyone’s focus had been on settling down and finding work. As for their points, naturally, they saved every single one they could. But it had been two months since Flower City opened up. Thanks to the high efficiency of the municipal government, the dust had long since settled. Once people achieved stability, they naturally started yearning for a better life. After all, before the apocalypse, everyone had genuinely lived that kind of comfortable lifestyle.

Because of this, even though she repeatedly emphasized that the goods were already reserved, by the time she got off the bus at the trading market, a massive crowd still swarmed out right behind her.

The group maintained a leisurely pace, clustering closely around her. If it weren’t for the fact that they were all chatting, laughing, and brimming with anticipation, it would have looked exactly like a mob of thugs kidnapping a poor, defenseless girl.

If the world weren’t so peaceful right now, Huai Yu would have genuinely been a little panicked!